Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance

Higher emotional intelligence boosts academic performance in three different ways, new large-scale study confirms. ​

As defined by Mayer and Salovey in 1997, emotional intelligence consists in four different skills related to both oneself and others:

• Emotion perception: ability to accurately identify and express emotional content
• Emotion understanding: ability to process emotional content with reference to a large knowledge base (e.g., vocabulary of emotions, antecedents and consequences of emotions)
• Emotion facilitation: ability to use emotions and emotional information as input or guidance in cognitive tasks or decisions
• Emotion management: ability to manage emotions in order to achieve a desirable outcome 

Summarizing the findings of 162 studies from 27 different countries, a recent meta-analysis found a “positive correlation between overall emotional intelligence and academic performance.” 

Arguably, the effect size (.20) was only moderate. However, it was slightly higher (.24) when looking at objective rather subjective (based on self-ratings) measures of emotional intelligence. Likewise, the influence of emotional intelligence on academic performance (measured through both classroom grades and externally assessed standardized tests) was higher for primary and secondary (.30) than for tertiary students. The effect was also more noticeable in literary (.38) than in scientific subjects (.21). Gender, to the contrary, was not a mediating factor. 

Regarding the four branches of emotional intelligence, their respective influences were as follows: 

• Emotion understanding: .35
• Emotion management: .26
• Emotion facilitation: .18
• Emotion perception: .09

According to the researchers, three different reasons might explain why higher emotional intelligence is associated with better academic performance: 

• “Students with higher emotional intelligence may be more able to regulate the negative emotions such as anxiety, boredom and disappointment, involved in academic performance.”

 

• “Students with higher emotional intelligence may be better able to manage the social world around them, forming better relationships with teachers, peers, and family.”

 

• “Emotional intelligence competencies may overlap with academic competencies required for certain subjects.”

All in all, the study concludes that “emotional intelligence is among the three most important predictors of academic performance,” accounting for about 10% of a student level of achievement, while intelligence (as measured by IQ) and conscientiousness account for 70% and 20% respectively.

Reference: McCann, JIang, Brown, “Emotional intelligence predicts academic performance: a meta-analysis”, APA Psychological Bulletin, 2019.